The Kural or the Maxims of Tiruvalluvar/Chapter 95

by Thiruvalluvar

CHAPTER 95

MEDICINE

941. Every one of the three humours described by sages, beginning with the windy one,^[1] would cause disease whenever they go to either extreme.

942. The body requireth no medicine if new food is eaten only after the old food is fully digested.

943. Eat with moderation and after the food that thou hast taken is digested : that is the way to prolong thy days.

944. Wait till thy food is digested and thy appetite is keen: then eat moderately the food that agreeth with thee.

945. If thou eat abstemiously the food that doth not disagree with thee thou wilt have no troubles in the body.

946. Even as Health seeketh the man who eateth only when his stomach is empty, even so doth Disease seek the man who eateth to excess.

947. Behold the man who glutteth himself foolishly beyond the measure of his internal heat : his diseases will exceed all measure.

948. Consider the disease and its origin and the means of curing it: and then set about the cure with every precaution.

949. Let the physician take the measure of the patient and the disease and the season that is: and then let him undertake the cure.

950. The patient, the physician, the medicine, and the apothecary, on these four doth all cure depend : and four again are the attributes of each of them.⁸

HERE ENDETH SECTION ii OF PART II ENTITLED THE MEMBERS OF THE BODY POLITIC

1. The other two are the bile and the phlegm.